Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
The accounting considerations for businesses in the Prairies start with sales tax, because the three provinces handle it three different ways. Alberta has only the 5% GST. Saskatchewan adds a 6% PST. Manitoba adds a 7% retail sales tax. On a $1,000 sale that’s $50, $110 or $120 in tax, and getting it wrong means a bill from a provincial tax office as well as the CRA.
What sales tax do you charge in each Prairie province?
The CRA’s rate information shows Manitoba at 5% GST plus 7% PST, a combined 12%. Our rate table has Saskatchewan at 6% PST with GST, 11% together, and Alberta with GST only. The GST and PST calculator gives the same results for a $1,000 sale.
| Province | Provincial tax | GST | Total on $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | None | $50 | $1,050 |
| Saskatchewan | $60 PST | $50 | $1,110 |
| Manitoba | $70 RST | $50 | $1,120 |
The GST goes to the CRA. The PST in Saskatchewan and the RST in Manitoba go to the province, and each has its own registration and its own return. Manitoba’s retail sales tax page confirms the 7% rate and says it’s calculated on the selling price, before the GST. We haven’t listed which goods and services each province taxes, because the lists are long and they differ. Check the province’s own page for your product before your first invoice.
If you sell out of province, the rate may depend on where the customer is. That’s a question for each tax office, not something the calculator answers. Even a few kilometres can matter: a shop on the Saskatchewan side of Lloydminster deals with PST, while one a street away on the Alberta side doesn’t.
How much corporate tax does a small company pay?
The CRA pages show the provincial rates for Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Alberta’s own tax page confirms a $500,000 small business threshold, but the rates weren’t on the page we read, so we don’t quote them as confirmed.
| Province | Lower rate | Higher rate | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saskatchewan | 1% (since 1 July 2023) | 12% | $600,000 |
| Manitoba | 0% | 12% | $500,000 |
| Alberta | Check alberta.ca, rates not confirmed here | ||
Put $300,000 of active business income through the corporate tax calculator for a Canadian-controlled private corporation. Saskatchewan comes to $30,000 in total, of which $3,000 is provincial. Manitoba comes to $27,000, all of it federal. That $3,000 gap is the lower Saskatchewan rate on the first dollars of profit. Over ten years of steady profit, that’s $30,000 you’d want to have planned for.
The tool doesn’t model credits and covers associated companies and passive income only through optional boxes. If two related companies share the small business limit, the real bill is higher.
What about payroll and the books?
Payroll works the same way in all three provinces, which makes it the one part of the books you can copy from a neighbour’s setup without much thought. You withhold income tax, CPP and EI and send them, plus your share, to the CRA. For one employee on $3,000 every two weeks, the payroll remittance calculator shows about $945 per pay in Alberta. The difference between provinces is only the provincial income tax part.
We haven’t confirmed provincial payroll levies, workers’ compensation premiums or farm programs, so none of them are in this page. If your business is an operating farm or a resource company, ask your advisor what applies to your industry. We’d rather say that than guess.
On records, the CRA wants you to keep them for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, at your business or home in Canada unless it gives written permission otherwise. See the CRA’s page on where to keep your records and for how long. Electronic records need to be readable and restorable. For a business that buys or sells in U.S. dollars, keep the exchange rate you used on each entry. That’s our practical advice, not a CRA rule, and it saves an argument at year end.
What mistakes do Prairie businesses make?
Charging GST and forgetting the provincial tax is the classic one, and it’s easy to do if your habits were formed in Alberta, where there is nothing to forget. Another is using one rate for every sale, when some items are taxed differently, or not at all, depending on what they are and who buys them. A third is holding sales tax money in the operating account, where it gets spent on the week’s costs.
Then there’s the provincial registration itself. Provincial sales tax is a separate account from your CRA business number, so ask each province how registration works before you start selling, not after a customer asks why there’s no tax line.
What if you operate in more than one Prairie province?
Then you’re running more than one tax setup at once. Give each province its own tax codes in your software and its own liability account, so the Manitoba RST never gets netted against a Saskatchewan PST balance. Each return goes to a different office on its own due date. A trucking firm hauling between Calgary, Regina and Winnipeg is a good test: if you can’t say in thirty seconds which tax applies where, write it down in a one-page table and keep it with the books.
The sources behind this page
Corporate rates for Saskatchewan (page updated May 2025) and Manitoba (May 2025) come from the CRA‘s provincial corporation tax pages. The Alberta threshold comes from Alberta’s corporate income tax page. The 5% GST and Manitoba 7% PST come from the CRA’s rate information, and the Saskatchewan 6% PST from that province’s sales tax page. Calculator examples use our 2026 data. We aren’t the CRA or any provincial office.
Frequently asked questions
Does Alberta have a provincial sales tax?
No. Only the 5% GST applies on our rate table.
What is the combined sales tax in Manitoba?
The CRA shows 5% GST plus 7% PST, a combined 12%.
Who collects Saskatchewan PST?
The province does, not the CRA. You register with Saskatchewan for it and file a separate return.
Which Prairie province has the lowest small business rate?
Manitoba shows 0% on the CRA page, up to a $500,000 limit. Saskatchewan shows 1% with a $600,000 limit.
How long do I keep records?
Six years after the end of the year they relate to, kept in Canada unless the CRA approves otherwise.
All family and benefits calculators
- Self-employed taxes in Canada: income, CPP and GST
How tax works when you are self-employed in Canada: reporting income and expenses, paying both halves of CPP, instalments and when to register for GST